It’s not entirely out of the ordinary for a movie or series to be streaming on a few different platforms at any given time but one as high profile as the eight Harry Potter films being available in multiple places at once is a bit of a surprise. Despite the series already streaming on HBO Max, where its home has been for some time and which makes the most sense as WarnerMedia own the films, all eight movies in the series have also been added to NBCUniversal’s Peacock as of today. Though a free tier is available the platform you’ll need one of the paid tiers to access Potter and his pals.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Harry Potter films aren’t the only thing that landed on Peacock today though as the highly anticipated Halloween Kills was also released on the streaming platform the same day that it was released in theaters. Producer Jason Blum previously revealed that it was his idea to bring the film to theaters and Peacock on the same date, telling Collider: “It was my idea to do it. [Peacock] didn’t approach me. I approached them….I had a bad distribution experience with Freaky. That movie is a great movie, and it didn’t get seen because the distribution of it got all twisted up. My fault….I didn’t want to go through that experience again”
For the time being the Harry Potter franchise’s future is firmly in the court of the Fantastic Beasts film series. The third in the planned five movie series wrapped filming earlier this year. Warner Bros. made headlines last year after they elected to part ways with actor Johnny Depp who had been playing the part of evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald. Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen has already been tapped to play the part moving forward. Fantastic Beasts 3, which is officially titled Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, is scheduled to open in theaters on April 15, 2022.
Despite the film work in the Harry Potter franchise firmly being in the court of the prequel movies, some fans have been interested in and called for a reboot of the property. Actress Bonnie Wright, who played the part of Ginny Weasley across the eight film series, revealed they hope that a new version doesn’t happen, at least not anytime soon.
“I would hope that they keep it as it was,” Wright told People. “I think it’s like a time capsule, and [if] you open it and it changes and everything feels kind of different… For sure, I miss playing Ginny, but I always quite like the idea that it’s properly compacted into those seven years at Hogwarts… At the same time, I love the experience so much. And I know that the production and all of us would do it so well that no matter what they imagined, it would be brilliant.”
